HEALTH PLUS:Prof Noam Chomsky knows the potential which lies in the young
IF YOU were one of the many people privileged to attend Prof Noam Chomsky’s presentations last week, either in UCD, Trinity or the RDS, you may still be savouring the experience of hearing him speak, admiring his intellectual courage, mulling over his ideas and marvelling at the intellectual magnitude of this man in the eighth decade of life.
Philosopher and professor emeritus of linguistics at Massachusetts’ Institute of Technology, Chomsky presents as a person of gentle power and powerful discernment who symbolises the importance of avoiding colonisation of our minds. He enjoins us to uncover the mechanisms by which power and privilege control the population and he cites depressingly repetitive examples of this, in history and in historical revisionism.
At a time when ordinary people in this country are reeling from betrayal by trusted institutions, Chomsky unravels the past and reveals how “the strong do as they like and the weak suffer as they must”.
These words resonate and are relevant today. But they do so, not just in a distressing way, but in an inspirational imperative to do something about it, particularly for young people to engage politically in altruistic endeavours.
In this, Chomsky is psychologically powerful, particularly for a younger generation, many of whom are dismayed by a mismanagement of their future by those in whom, on whom, they should have been able to rely.
Chomsky’s age allied to his intellect facilitates a forensic interrogation of the real motivation that often lies behind rhetoric. His presence reminds us of the importance of thinking, analysing, examining, listening and not always accepting presented versions of world events. He reminds us of the manner in which media “filters and interprets” what it presents and the power that lies behind that. Chomsky’s presence reminds us how much we need thinkers, those who can see what is not always apparent to others and have the courage to articulate it.
Chomsky reminds us that we need to think about the world in which we live, and how and by whom it is shaped intellectually and politically. His presence reminds us that we need controversial ideas, because they force us to examine our own ideas. Ideas that are challenging demand that we position ourselves in world debates as much as in our personal concerns and that we think on behalf of others and their future, not just about ourselves in the present.
Chomsky’s presence reminds us of the importance of intellectual giants who describe what is happening in our world from their perspectives, and who view the world from a height above it with an acerbic eye. But, most importantly, Chomsky seems to know what potential lies in the young to achieve heights on behalf of humanity, if they are committed to doing so.
At all venues in which Chomsky spoke last week there were young adults: students who instigated and organised the events because they need thinkers in this time. There were the students in Trinity who honoured his contribution to public discourse with a gold medal. There were the students of the Law Society in UCD who awarded him honorary life membership.
In these student awards lay recognition that philosophical leadership is inspirational, protective of the future, and validating of students themselves, particularly when they are received so graciously by those thinkers to whom they are offered.
Despite the negative discourses that often surround students, most are distinguished by how they will give of their talent and intellect on behalf of others and by the generosity of their response when commissioned to do so. Elder learned men and women understand this. They know that an award from the young is one of the highest honours a person can attain.
Witnessing the mutual recognition of “old and young” is a privilege and hearing them debate with each other is an absolute joy. As one student, whose thesis was challenged by Chomsky’s Socratic questioning, more or less responded, “Thank you Prof Chomsky, if I have to be rebutted, it is a honour that it is by you!”
Regardless of which presentation by Chomsky that you attended, you may still be considering some truisms that seemed to emerge from watching this man receive recognition from young people. The first is the sacredness of the interaction between generations that are lifetimes apart in age but allied in academic endeavour. The second is the moral imperative to interrogate the motivation that lies behind rhetoric in order to challenge hegemony in all its guises.
- mmurray@irishtimes.com Clinical psychologist and author Marie Murray is director of the Student Counselling Services in UCD